Replacing Rear Screen = Hell!

Post by **dunketh** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 11:29 am

Seriously the worst job I've ever done on any car!

I've replaced the clutch, front trunions, engine, entire braking system, and much much more on my Morris. Changing the rear window takes the 'bad job biscuit' by a country mile!!!

Firstly the seal was a **** to even get on the glass - mostly because it kept wanting to twist and partly because it was about an inch too long! If it had been a bit shorter at least it would have held itself onto the glass by elastic action and not kept falling off!!

Getting it in was a total nightmare. While putting enough force on the glass to get it anywhere near the hole you're also putting too much force on the rubber to pull the string through!

The job took around 3 HOURS in total. I managed to slice a length of the outer lip off the rubber at the bottom of the screen AND I managed to put two large raggedy tears in it at the side. It’s a mess.
(it will be repaired with silicon and is still better than the totally porous thing it replaced - so I'm calling it a result.)

Oh, did I mention, the string snapped whilst it was half way in! Leaving me to painstakingly pry the rubber up with one screwdriver and over with another.

All this after the front screen 'popped' in in ten minutes flat and took a further hour of easy fiddling to insert the plastic strip. I never expected the rear to be so much more difficult.

I did this job last night and I'm still wearing my 'not amused' face and mindset this morning. I'm never going to do one again. To top it off we even had some injuries:

Me - I smacked myself in the face with my spanner when the string snapped. (got a nice red mark now)
My Wife - Hurt her wrist trying to hold the glass, was in pain all afternoon.
My Dad - Hurt his knees clambering about in the back after he'd taken over the wife's job.

Oh, btw, before anyone suggests it - I did buy the best quality seal! Heaven knows what sort of fight i'd have had with the cheap one??

Anyway, rant over. Good Morning Everyone!

Post by **bpr81a** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 12:59 pm

Have you tried doing the front glass on a split screen? I've done both, and believe me, the rear on a 1000 is <b>much</b> easier!

Jon

Post by **Orkney** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 1:00 pm

Nightmare !!!

Oh, btw, before anyone suggests it - I did buy the best quality seal!

Ah but did you skimp on the string quality

Think after reading what youve said would think about shutting the car in the garage with a few heaters going for a day and maybe soften that seal a bit ?

Post by **steve4063** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 1:37 pm

i personally would of said the front was worse.......

me and my missus the eve before the national took 6 hours to fit a screen !!!!!!!!!!!

bad move thinking o a quick job to make it look better

mind you i did one the other sat and it was in completely in an hour flat

i soaked the rubber for 15 mins in boiling water (mind yopur hands when taking it out of the water)

i then put the rubber on the screen and got the missus to hold it while i fitted the plastic chrome strip and string (good quality)

and it went in really easy
she was panicking because last time i nearly threw it across the road it was that bad

the rear went in fairly easy last time tho.

there's got to be an easy way of doing these things
i've even got one of them special tools for the strip waste of £12 that was absolutely rubbish i normally use a screwdriver carefully

Post by **ptitterington** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 10:31 pm

I am so pleased that it is not just me that had all this trouble. I could not even figure out how the set of screen tools were supposed to work.
I too have some rips in the rear rubber but they are not too noticable with a little black silicone. My thumb hurt for ages from the front screen trim!!

Post by **Kevin** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 9:11 am

Unfortunately a lot of the problems are caused by build tolerances which mean the openings vary quite a bit from car to car but I have not heard of a new seal being too long before, have you mentioned it to the supplier in case he has recieved a duff batch and is not aware of it.

Post by **dunketh** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 10:17 am

I don't know if it was too long or just not short enough... if that makes any sense.
When I did my front one the rubber stretched over the circumference of the glass like a rubber band. Its own elasticity held it on.
With the rear screen this was not the case and it would easily fall off - yet another thing that made fitting a pain.

I could not even figure out how the set of screen tools were supposed to work.

Nobody local sold them so I didn't bother with the 'tools'. My resto book made me laugh "Pick up one at any local unipart dealer" lol.. maybe 30 years ago you could - they dont even list them now!

I just used a flat screwdriver with rounded tip for fitting the trim.

Post by **jamesbradbury** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 6:55 pm

Dear Ripped Rear Rubber Sealers, whilst helping my husband replace the rear window seal, I discovered much to my amazement that the technical terminology used is much the same as when fitting a kitchen, a bathroom or a new roof headlining.
"It's only a 5 minute job" he said and I believed him, needless to say 4 hours later and with the light fading we covered the car up and called it a day. If there is ever a next time I am busy that day.
Hubby wanted me to say we bought a cheap rubber and it went on a dream, but I'm not a nasty peice of work like him.

Post by **MoggyTech** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 7:03 pm

One piece of advice. Have a friend who works for Autoglass. I would rather buy a couple of pints than wrestle with Moggy window glass.

Right, I'll get my coat (and go for a pint)

Post by **rayofleamington** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 11:01 pm

It sounds like your screen rubber was faulty to start with - it's not a fun job when it fits the screen properly!
I did one a few years ago - just 2 people and a bit of struggling and 90 minutes - and just one tear, followed by breaking the string and changing over to screwdrivers.
The rubber fitted to the screen perfectly - fairly tight so had to be pushed over the last corner and then held itself correctly to the screen with no 'wiggles'

Post by **callyspoy** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 12:18 am

hahaha! because this seems to be something that everyone hasn't admitted to before, i thought i would jump on the bandwagon. split screen...front, absolute nightmare, i would say 5hours, countless little tears(lots of eye tears from me!!) dad got angry, then the chrome surround didn't go in properly, and ahem...it still leaks a little...!! but im sorting that at the weekend! the rear one was a "doddle", pretty quick but i did get cocky at one point which caused a fair tear...muppet! but on the whole looks much better after!

Post by **downsey** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 1:24 am

For me personally, the split screens up front were wayyyyy easier than the rear. The rear took me 3 hours with help from my dad and the front took about ten minutes. Definetely a 2-3 job, though.

Post by **RogerRust** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 9:42 am

My best advice is shop around you will find some of the suppliers offer two items for the screen rubbers, one is more expensive than the other!

Now why do you think that is?

Quality is the way to go - I still managed a small tear in the rear rubber, but I think. I think looking back that thicker "string " ( I think Cam used plastic coated washing line) is the way to go.
Buy the way years ago in the process industry we used too make O rings off the reel with superglue and they never failed. So I used superglue (of a good quality) to fix the small tear in mine and its fine now.

I did not use sealant front or rear and no sign yet of any leaks.